Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

Henry Alford 1810–71

Colonos

COLONOS! can it be that thou hast still

Thy laurel and thine olives and thy vine?

Do thy close-feather’d nightingales yet trill

Their warbles of thick-sobbing song divine?

Does the gold sheen of the crocus o’er thee shine

And dew-fed clusters of the daffodil,

And round thy flowery knots Cephisus twine,

Aye oozing up with many a bubbling rill?

Oh, might I stand beside thy leafy knoll,

In sight of the far-off city-towers, and see

The faithful-hearted pure Antigone

Toward the dread precinct, leading sad and slow

That awful temple of a kingly soul,

Lifted to heaven by unexampled woe!